Dynasty Warriors was a PlayStation 2 hallmark. It, and its sequels, popularized the massive battle style of beat’em up titles. It was a style of gameplay that saw many imitators, Drakengard being one of the more distinctive iterations. Drakengard had the fortune of being developed under the watch of Square Enix, and it combined on-foot melee combat, a la Dynasty Warriors, with high-flying dragon-back shooting.

There was a sequel, aptly named Drakengard 2, and then the series disappeared for a while. But Square Enix has announced Drakengard 3, which sees a number of changes to the status quo. For one, the series has its first female lead protagonist, Zero. Secondly, Cavia is defunct, so development duties have fallen to Access Games. For those who can’t place the name, Access Games was behind Deadly Premonition, either the best or worst game of this console generation. Drakengard 3 is slated for a Japanese PlayStation 3 release later this year, with no word on a Western port as of yet.